| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the topic. The European logistics market is experiencing increasing competition, due to established large market players, new start-ups, as well as other 3 million companies offering their logistics services in Europe. Despite the high competition in the European logistics market, there are other additional challenges for companies providing road logistics services. Challenges identified in literature and information sources are changing market conditions, a complex regulatory environment, limited access to resources, and increasing labor costs. These factors can affect the company's competitiveness, profitability, and ability to meet the needs of business clients. In addition to competition and other challenges, there are ecological problems caused by global warming and pollution, with road freight accounting for more than 25% of CO2 emissions in the EU. Companies that do not maintain their competitive advantage may find it difficult to attract new clients and retain existing ones, which may ultimately jeopardize their ability to stay in business. Sharpening competition, constant changes in the business environment, and emerging ecological problems force logistics companies to look for better strategies for competitive advantage, which leads to greater attention to the management of business clients and the development of relationships with them. There is a lack of research in the scientific literature on how to use value-creating factors and other factors in building and maintaining relationships with business clients, especially in the European road logistics market, which could be used by road transport companies to remain competitive. This is especially important in this period when the business faces many survival challenges, which are directly related not only to economic and ecological factors but also to the state of business client relationships. In this setting, potential research can not only fill the gaps in the literature on this topic but also provide recommendations for road logistics service companies seeking to maintain competitive advantage and use key factors and service values to attract new business clients and retain existing ones, thereby creating long-term business relationships and fostering client engagement, potentially leading to market competitiveness and long-term success. Research object – service perceived value effect on business relationship quality and client engagement in the case of the European road logistics service market. Research aim – to analyze the possible impact of perceived service value on the quality of relationships and client engagement in the business-to-business European road logistics service market. Main theoretical findings: Long-term business relationships offer strategic value that reduces uncertainty, improves planning, reduces risks, reduces operating costs, and boosts logistics service providers growth. Building long-term connections with B2B clients can build up trust, satisfaction, and loyalty between involved parties, which can lead to increased client engagement on offers. B2B clients value monetary and qualitative values, like cost savings, price transparency, volume discounts, faster delivery times, improved inventory management, risk reduction, reliability, flexibility, communication, transparency, trackability, responsiveness, compliance, and expertise of the logistics services. By adopting sustainability practices, logistics service providers can lower their environmental impact and provide additional value, together with monetary and qualitative ones, to their B2B clients. Road logistics service providers must continue to assess and improve the quality of their relationships with B2B clients through clear communication, frequent satisfaction surveys, and a culture of continuous development. By doing so, they can develop and maintain long-term B2B relationships while encouraging stronger client engagement, which leads to additional service purchases, recommendations, useful information, and stronger commitment. Main empirical results: Identified key factors, such as price competitiveness, capacities, reputation, and general information of the company, that potential clients consider before establishing business relationships. Clients also take into account both monetary and qualitative values of logistics services, such as cost savings, delivery time, risk reduction, volume discounts, communication, reliability, expertise, flexibility, traceability, and compliance with industry standards. Highlighted most important values, such as cost savings, communication, delivery time, reliability, and expertise, can directly influence the quality of business relationships. Sustainability reports can be a useful application not only for business clients but also for road logistics companies in order to evaluate different applicable sustainability principles. It was found that if road logistics companies tracked statistics of the provided services and shared them during occasional meetings, it would help to monitor and evaluate business relationship quality. Lack of communication, lying, non-compliance, change of responsible manager, delivery delays, increasing damage, inadequate prices, and client theft are factors that can worsen or end business relationships with clients. Long-term relationships with road logistics service providers can influence client engagement in purchasing, which can be expressed through priority given to offers, less sensitivity to service prices, additional potential orders, representation of service quality, and efforts to find the best solution for all parties. In addition to service purchases, business clients would aid in various situations, give required information, and promote them to their colleagues. Based on empirical study results, five recommendations were provided for road logistics service providers, who want to develop and maintain long-term relationships with B2B clients. |
